Oil burning machine utilizing air blast



y 24, 1932- A. KLEES 1,860,311

. OIL BURNING MACHINE UTILIZING AIR BLAST Filed June 20, 1928 RFLOW Ou.

Svwewtoz ALBERT L. KLEES 351;; /7/6 GHQW Patented May 24, 1932 UNITED EP ENT omcs ALBERT L. KLEES, on NEW YORK, N. Y., .ASSIGNOR 'ro co BUsTIoNUTILITIES con- PORA'I'ION, on NEW YORK, N. 2., LA CORPORATION or MAINEOIL BURNING MACHINE UTILIZING AIR BLAST Application filed June 20,

have been encountered in installations for this purpose. One diflicultyhas been that oil and carbon deposits have'collected in the burnerapparatus and have caused odors when the burner has been shut down andhave sometimes caused accidents when starting up the apparatus after ashut down.

It is the principal object of the present 1nvention to provide a methodof and apparatus for burning fuel which shall avoid the above mentioneddifficulty Further objects and advantages of the present invention willbe apparent to those skilled in the art from the following descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: 7

Fig. 1 is an elevational view, partly diagrammatic in character, of afuel burning apparatus embodying the present invention, parts beingbroken away and parts being shown in section for purposes ofillustration;

Fig. 2 is a detail view of a switch used in the. apparatus of Fig. 1 andhaving a rotating contact;

Fig. 8 isa detail view of a pilot burner used in the apparatus of Fig.1.

In the drawings, 10 indicates a boiler which ma be of the ordinaryhousehold type and which has a furnace 11. A burner 12 is illustratedwithin furnace 11. Preferably, burner 12 is of the combined gas and oilburning type, but certain aspects of the present invention are notlimited to the combined type of burner.

It has been found that a combined oil and gas burner permits a widerapplication of gas fuel to household heating than would otherwise be thecase, as the oil burner can be used in colder weather when the gas plantis heavily loaded and the gas burner can be used in milder weather whenthe gas plant has surplus capacity. The house heating load can thereforebe relieved of certain fixed charges which it would otherwise have tocarry. As illustrated, the burner 12 includes an oil distributing andburning head 14.

1928. Serial No. 286,849.

Head or burner 14 forms no part of the present invention Burner 14receives oil through a pipe 16. The gas burner 18 is illustrated assurrounding a hood 20 of the oil burner 12. By this arrangement the hood20 is kept hot when'the oil burner 12 is not in operation and the oilburning portion of the apparatus is maintained in condition to startoperation at 9 maximum efficiency. I V 7 Gas is supplied to burner 18 bypipe 22. The passage of gas to burner 18 is desirably controlled byautomatic means. In the arrangement shown, a valve 24 is placed in pipe22. Valve 24 is directly operated by a' spring operating mechanism 26,mechanism 26-being so arranged that valve 24 opens and closes with aquick snap, and is held either wide open or tight shut. Mechanism 26 isoperated by the shaft 28 of a Honeywell motor 30,- the construction andwiring arrangements of which are well known and are not described orshown in detail. Motor I 30 is connected to be operated from theordinary llOvolt supply circuit 82 and is controlled by a thermostat 34which is placed in a room of the house. Thermostat 34 causes the motor30 to'throw-valve 24 into position 7 to turn on the gas to burner 18whenever the temperature at the thermostat falls below the low point forwhich the thermostat. is set and into position to turn off the gas whenthe temperature at the thermostat rises above the high point for whichit has been set.

Moreover, in order to provide for thesafe operation of the apparatus,the circuits 36 connected to thermostat 34 are extendedas indicated at38 to an emergency control 40. Control 40 is arranged to be operated ba. lever 42 which is controlled in turn by a iaphragm 44 operated by anexcessive steam pressure in boiler 10 to cause motor 30 to turn off thegas at valve 24.

Oil for burner head 14- is supplied by a. pump 46, the suction pipe ofwhich is indi-i cated at 48. Oil is delivered from the pump 46 tothe-pipe 16" previously mentioned by which it is delivered to the burner14. Pipe 16 contains a T 50 which connects to an overflow pipe 52 bywhich excess oil from the pump 46 is delivered back to the oil reservoirserving to maintain asubstantially constant pressure on the oil in pipe16. ,The. air. for the burner 14 is delivered to an 'air chamber 56beneath the burner 14 by means of pipe 58 which conducts the air fromdraft fan 60.

' given points.

' *It will be seen. therefore that the circuit of 'given radius 100 ofthe disk Asillustrated, the pump '46 and fan both are operated by shaft62 of electric motor 64;

Means are provided whereby motor 64is kept idle unless both the out-doortemperature and the room temperature are below The circuit of motor '64contains thermostat 66 on the outer wall of the building 68. Thermostat66 is constructedso that the circuit of the motor 64 is open whenthetemperature is above agiven point. The temperature point selected isone found by experience to be approximately the'lowest at which the gasworks has any surplus gas;-

making capacity. When the outdoor tem-v perature falls below the givenpoint, thermostat- 66 closes and permits motor, 64 to run. Moreover,automatic means are provided in series with the thermostatv66 wherebythe motor 64 may be controlled by the motor 30 and so by the interiorhouse thermostat 34. The automatic means just mentioned includes acontact 70 on the shaft 28 which is connected to one side of the circuit32 by wire 72 and which is connected to a radial contact arm 74 at theouter end of the shaft 28 by means of-an insulated wire 76 within theshaft 28. The arm 74 cooperates with a fixed segmental contact 77mounted onthe fixed insulating disk 78 which is illustrated as mountedupon the shaft 28 near its outer end. (See Fig. 2). The fixed contact 77connects withvthe motor 64' by the wire 80. Motor 64 moreover isconnected to the thermostat; 66 by the wire 82,- and thermostat 66isconnected to the other side of the circuit 32 by wire 84.

motor 64 includes circuit 32, wire 72, contact 70, wire 7 6, arm 74,contact 77, wire 80, wire 82, thermostat 66, and wire 84. It will beunderstood that, in the operation of the apparatus herein disclosed, theoil burner 14 of the motor 64 can only operate when ther mostat 34is ina position calling for additional heating and the thermostat 66indicating cold weather, The arm 74 is so positioned with respect to thecontact 77 and the shaft 28 that the motor 64 runs only when a the motor30 is in position to turn on the gas at the valve 24.. This occurs onlywhen the thermostat 34 requires more heat. 7

Unless special means were provided therefore, the gas burner 18 wouldalways operate at the same time that the burner 14 is in operation.-This is unnecessary and would create a drain on the gas mains atthetimes they are heavily loaded. It is desired therefore to cut off thegas burner 18 when the oil burner is in operation, but it willbe'seenfrom prises a pair of cutofi' valves 86 and. 88 in the gas pipe 22 andoil pipe 16 respectively. The moving members of valves 86'a-nd 88 areboth fixed to the rod 90 which forms part of the plungerof solenoid 92.When solenoid 92 is energized, .the rod 90 is raised so that valve 86cuts 011' the gas in pipe 22 and valve 88 opens to permit the flow ofoil in pipe 16.

When the circuit of the solenoid 92 is broken so that it isde-energized, the rod 90 drops by its own weight so that the valve 88cuts off the oil. in pipe 16 and opens pipe 22 to the flow of gas. Thecircuit of the solenoid 92 is connected soas to be controlled by thethermostat 66 and the contact arm 74 previously mentioned. The circuitof the-solenoid 92 includes the circuit 32, wire 72, contact 70,

wire 76, arm .74, short 'fixed contact 94 p on the disk 78, Wire 96,-thewinding of 'H the solenoid 92, wire 98, wire 82, thermostat 66, and wire84. The solenoid 92 therefore opensthe valve 88 in the oil pipe andcloses the valve 86 in the gas pipe, whenever the motor 64 is inoperation. if the draft to burner 12 is cut off at the same instant asthe oil supply to the burner,

a certain amount of unburned oil remains on the surface of head 14 andcollects under the hood 20 so that it is apt to produce an odor and maycreate other difliculties. In order to avoid these difliculties, meansare provided so that the motor 64 shall continue to run for a "materiallength of time, preferably 3 minutes, after the oil-has been cut off bythe valve 88. For this purpose, the contact 94 in the circuit of thesolenoid 92 is made much shorter than the contact 77 in the circuit ofmotor 64.. It will be noted that the contacts 77 and 94 each have oneend at a 78. It will be understood that the contact arm 74 is so relatedto the armature and shaft of the motor 30 that arm 74 always comes torest at radius 100 when thegas or'oil burneris to start into operation,but if thermostat 34 changes to the position to shut down the gas or oilburn er, the motor 30 thereupon turns arm 74 in the direction of arrow102 for approximately Owing to the gearing between the ar-' mature ofmotor 30 and the shaft 28 the movement of the arm 74 is relatively veryslow.

ize

However, as the contact 94 is relatively short,

the circuit of solenoid 92is 0pened soonager contact arm begins to movefrom the position. 100. The contact 77 however, being relatively longthe circuit of motor 64 is main tained closed until the arm .74 hasmoved nearly through the full 180. The movement of the arm 74 issufficiently slow s'othat the motor 64 remains in operation nearly threeminutes after the oil has been cut off to burner 14.

If the forced air draft to burner 14 is continued after the oil has beencut ofi, the ordinary type of pilot light or burner would beextinguished by the draft and serious difficulty would be encounteredwhen the oil came on again. The pilot light or burner for oil burner 14is indicated at 104. In order to prevent difficulties arising fromextinction of the burner 104, it is a feature of the present inventionto provide a pilot burner of the persistent burning type adapted toremain lighted when the air blast is continued after the oil flame hasbeen extinguished. The pilot burner 104 according to the presentinvention is illustrated in detail in Fig. 3. Burner 104 comprises acylindrical burner mouth 106 wide open at its upper end and connected atits lower end to the gas pipe 108. At the junction of the mouth 106 andthe pipe 108, there is a restricted nozzle or burner spud 110 soarranged that a fine jet of gas is projected into the mouth 106 alongthe central axis of the mouth. The pipe 108 has a relatively smalldiameter as compared with the body 106 so that the body projectsoutwardly from the pipe at their point of connection. Adjacent itsconnection to the pipe 108, the body 106 is provided with'a series ofair inlets 112112. The orifice in the spud 110 and the air inlets112-112 are so proportioned and arranged that the burner 106 delivers aBunsen flame when the draft fan 60 is stationary. When, however, the fan60 is in operation, the draft in the chamber 56 passes up through theapertures 112 to increase the amount of air supplied to burner 104 andit is proportioned and arranged so that the burner thereupon deliversthe typical flame of a blast lamp which is well-known to be verydiiiicult to extinguish. Furthermore, in order to increase thedifficulty of extinguishing the pilot burner 104, a wire gauze 114 isplaced transversely within the mouth 106 well away from its open end.When the burner 104 is operating as a Bunsen burner, the Wire gauze 114becomes highly heated and assists in maintaining a flame within themouth106 under the blast conditions. Preferably the gauze 114 is ofMonel metal. If the pipe 58 is open when the fan is still, air is drawnthrough fan 60 and pipe 58 by natural draft thereby undesirably coolingthe hood 12. In order to prevent the draft through pipe 58 when the fanis shut down, it is preferred to put a flap valve in pipe 58 adapted toopen automatically'by the air pressure.

created by the fan, but adapted to close against the pressure of thenatural draft in the apparatus. In the arrangement illustrated, analuminum valve 116 is pivoted at.

118 in pipe 58. Pivot 118 is 'at the upper edge of valve 116 and theweight of the valve, in the absence of air pressure, causes it to and inwhich the said a1r supply is ofi".

hang against the inner surface of the pipe to close it. VVhen fan-60 isrunning, theair pressure on the fan side of va1ve116 is sufli- -cient toswing the valve far enough from the vertical throughpivot 118 to permittheair from fan 60 to pass'to the burner. Valve 116 is illustrated as inthe act of closing when the fan 60 has'been shut down, but before theassage through pipe 58 has been closed.

aving thus described my invention, I claim: I Y

1. The combination of an oil burner, means for supplying air and oil,respectively, under pressure to said burner, and unitary means forturning on and off said supplying means, said last means being operativeto continue the air supply to said burner for a predetermined briefperiod after the oil supply has been cut off.

2. The combination as set out in claim 1, unitary means is adapted tocontinue the air supply at the said pressures for as much as two andonehalf minutes after the oil has been cut ofl.

3. The combination as set out in claim 1, together with a pilot burnerof the persistent burning type disposed adjacent the oil burner in thedirect path of the pressure air supply and adapted to produce aABunsentype flame When said air supply is cut ofi'.

4. The combination as set out in claim 1, together with a pilot burnerdisposed adjacent the oil burner in the direct path of the pressure airsupply, and constructed and arranged to give a blast flame when the airsupply is on and a Bunsen flame when the 5. A burner apparatus includingan air conduit to amain burner a draft fan and a pilot burner having ametal gauze set transversely across and at some distance behind its openmouth and located within the air conduit.

6. The apparatus as set forth in claim 5 and in which the pilot burneris equipped with a restricted gas nozzle and a number of restricted airapertures so proportioned and arranged as to act as a Bunsen burner Iwhen the fan is not Working and to act as a blast burner when the fan isworking.

7. Oil burning apparatus comprising, in combination, a forced draftconduit, a blower for supplying air under pressure to said conduit, anoil vaporizing plate mounted over the discharge end of the conduit,means for supplying oil under a positive pressure to the vaporizingmostatically controlled mechanism for turning on and off said air andoil supply, said mechanism including means for continuing the air supplyto said burner under substantially undiminished pressure for a briefpredetermined period after the oil supply has been cut off. i

8. The combination with an oil burner of face of said plate, and therizomeans controlled by a room. thermostat for supplying air and oilrespectively under a determinate pressure to the said burner, and forcutting ofi such supplies of air and oil, and automatic means associatedwith the first named means adapted to cut off the flow of oil to theburner while maintainin the suply of air at the said pressure to t eburner or a determinate period thereafter. m In testimony whereof I'aflix my signature.

ALBERT L. KLEES.

